Mariners and Teachers both made winning starts as the rugby season got underway at Malabar over the weekend.

After narrowly winning the Sandys Boat tournament on the previous weekend, Mariners had a much easier time of things in their first league encounter, cruising to a comfortable 36-0 win over a depleted Police side.

Injuries meant that Police had just 13 fit players for the game, and although they did well to restrict Mariners to just six tries, they were never likely to pose much of a threat.

Tries from Alun Thomas, Rich Brown (2) and Rob Brown gave Mariners a 22-0 lead at half-time, and despite some determined work from Police, Gary Brady and Bongani Ndlovu added converted tries in the second half.

In the other game, Teachers won their first trophy of the season, beating Renegades 16-0 to lift the President's Cup.

A physical game was ultimately decided by the boot of Teachers' kicker Chris Naylor, and a fine opportunist try from Shauntino Simons.

Renegades indiscipline at the breakdown led to Naylor kicking two penalties to edge Teachers 6-0 ahead at half-time.

The second half saw much of the same and another penalty, this time from Dave Porter, put further distance between the sides.

Young player of the year from last season, Simons, then scored the game's only try after a wonderful piece of opportunism and tremendous support from his pack. Porter nailed the kick to give Teachers a great start to the season.

In ladies' rugby, defending champions Renegades got off to a comfortable start, easily beating Teachers 9-2 with Amy Harvey-McGlynn grabbing four of her side's tries. Mariners, meanwhile, overran Police, going into a 5-0 lead at half-time before Amanda Swan, Amy Turner and Chantal Brown all scored hat-tricks in an emphatic 11-3 win.